I will start by saying that I think Austria is one of the most overlooked countries in Europe. When planning our trip, it wasn’t even on our radar. You don’t hear much about it. Then after talking with my oldest sister, Jolie, she asked if we were going. I hadn’t really thought about it, because, well, I didn’t think it was important. Boy, was I wrong. We are in love with Austria, especially the homey goodness of Salzburg. At this point in the trip, it was definitely our favorite stop, so we extended it, and ended up staying here for 5 nights!

We decided to start our experience in this quaint city with the movie that made it so famous- The Sound of Music. Yes, it was cheesy, and yes, it was the most touristy thing we have done our whole trip, but I just don’t think it is right to come here and not experience the places that made the Trapp family come alive. It was a great day. Some of the most breathtaking views we have seen.

Austria, you did not let us down.

Our new friends, Laurie & Chelsea from Orange County. After hanging out all day, talking we realized that Laurie had planned to attend the wedding we shot this past year in San Diego but couldn’t because she was out of town! It is so crazy how small this world is. It was so nice to meet people along the way who shared the same types of passions we did, this World is full of amazing people, sometimes you have to go to Salzburg to find them!

The church Maria and Baron were married in.

The garden where “Doe, a deer” was filmed.

The next shot reminded me of my momma. She loves roses. Here is a dozen for you, with one to grow on :) Happy Birthday week!

The fountain where the children danced…. so, I danced too :) But that is on video… you gotta wait for it :)

Lastly a shot over the bridge separating the “Old Town” from the new. I am pretty sure we shot this bridge from every angle at every different time of the day, so expect to see more of it. It was beautiful no matter how the lighting was or where we stood. Kept getting better.

The next blog will be our first day trip to Munich, definitely worth reading about. I may make Wes blog it. A little heavy for me.

Anyways, I hope the world is kissing you on the cheek.
Be Happy and love each other.
T

One thing I have learned about this trip is that everyone I meet has their opinion.
“Yes, you HAVE to do Florence, it is the most intriguing place I have ever been!”
“The blue grotto sucks, I mean, it is just blue light shining up”
“Hostels are terrible, dirty, and loud”
yada yada yada

Everyone has told us what they think about every city they have been to and what they think we should do, while we have agreed with some and completely disagreed with others, we appreciate the effort to let us know what they think. The biggest thing we have discovered, is well, you have to discover it for yourself to see… But there is one place in the whole world, that opinions don’t matter. You can’t listen to the people who love it or hate it. This is the one city that speaks for itself. And is a place where the history of the world unravels. It is a place that stands on its own.

Rome.

We visited Rome on our honeymoon, and I couldn’t get over its mystery. There was so much to do and see that we just couldn’t fit it all in. The main thing we missed was the Sistine Chapel. So this was on the top of our list this time. And it was well, worth it. It amazes me the detail, the thought, and the years of work that went into this masterpiece.

Here are a few of its shots:

My favorite ceiling in the museum. I have never missed my wide angle more than I did on this day. Oh man.

This is the last hallway you walk through before finally entering the chapel, no photographs are allowed to be taken in the actual chapel, so out of respect we didn’t… this is something you really will have to see for yourself.

We then ventured over to Saint Peter’s, which completely blows my mind. Based on “tradition and historical evidence” the altar is built directly over St. Peter’s grave. This is crazy to me that I am visiting what is believed to be Peter from the Bible’s tomb!

We only spent a day in Rome since we had already seen everything else and we are on a tight schedule. This will not be my last visit. I love this place, and I look forward to being able to explore it again.

Be happy and love each other.
T

Cities Traveled: Madrid | Barcelona | Carcassonne | Montpellier | Lyon | Florence | Cinque Terre | Siena
Days Out: 15

While on our honeymoon, Wes chose the three places to take us in Italy- Rome, Venice, and Sinaluga (in the Tuscany region). While in Sinaluga, we rented a car and explored the area and surrounding villages. We fell in love immediately. And decided we had to go back. While driving around we went to Siena, and loved the small streets with the cafes and old world charm. So we chose this area to return to.

This is our time to rest and chill. We rented a moped and went into the back hills of the region. Loved every second. Had no idea that they still had so many gravel roads and even how open the fields are. This is God’s country. Seriously.

We went into this vintage boutique on our honeymoon and when we passed it again, I had to walk through. It is like stepping into my oldest sister’s closet and seeing all of her clothes, but priced probably double what she even paid for them in the 80′s, 90′s. But it is still fun to look at. :)

Overall the two days we spent here have definitely be the most relaxing of the trip. If you want to just go and chill somewhere, be alone, or be alone with each other. This is definitely a part of the world I recommend. Although, I recommend southeast of Siena- Sinaluga, Cortona, Montepulciano, Montalcino, and Perugia. Also, although there are vineyards everywhere this time of year with grapes as big as I have ever seen, we think we prefer the spring. April to be exact :) Everything is green and there are flowers blooming everywhere.

Driving on the train heading to Rome, we passed our chateau. The place that has inspired our love and a place that will be special to us for the rest of our lives. It was so nice seeing it. I give my husband a kiss and tell him I love him more than I did on the nights we spent there. And continue on our journey. Rome. One of my favorite cities in the world.

Cities Traveled: Madrid | Barcelona | Carcassonne | Montpellier | Lyon | Florence | Cinque Terre
Days Out: 14

WHAT A DAY!!!! Good thing Tera and I aren’t starting a travel company any time soon… most people wouldn’t make it back alive. The 5:30am wake up call actually wasn’t that bad… walked to the train station in Florence to catch our 6:30am train just so we could the entire day in Cinque Terre; what an idea that was. Tera and I bought a EuroRail pass to travel anywhere in Europe for 10 days…. meaning we choose which days to travel and on those days, we can ride the train as many times as we want. The pass is new to us, so we weren’t completely up to date on all the rules…. mostly because there in Italian (no biggie). Back to the morning. The train attendant gave us our ticket and it said that the train leaves at 9am… WHAT!!! Turns out that he booked us on the Fast Train instead of the Regional Train… so the good was that they get to Cinqua Terre at the same time – bad is that we have 2 1/2 hours to waste. Luckily for us the hostel was close and they let us back in to eat the free breakfast and use wifi (wee-fee, as the French call it), and we got to eat with our suite-mates and explain to them our new plan.

Ok great… we head to the train station to board the super fast train and we find out that the teller actually only gave us our connecting ticket and not the one from Florence — My mistake not looking at the cities on the ticket. Usually if the teller gives you a ticket to the suggested route – that’s what it says. So we find a Regional Train to go on, but I want my 20 Euros back that we had to pay for the fast train… so we go back to the teller. Ends up he yells at us to run to the Regional Train because it’s leaving in one minute. We made it…. ahhhhhhhhh We’re on our way!!! We’re still a little confused because we still only have the ticket for our connection and not directly from Florence. The train is moving and Tera and I invent a new Head Band for trains so your head doesn’t just rock around…. patent coming soon.

Now the train attendant is coming by to check passes… no biggie, we’re use to this. The only difference is we don’t have a ticket, only the EuroRail pass. Oh geeze…. no common language between us and we’re arguing because I didn’t write the day we were traveling in… so we owe 50 Euros!!! We just paid a large sum of money for this unlimited pass and now we have to pay this!!! No way!! All because I didn’t write a date in BEFORE BOARDING. Thanks to the lady across the isle for the language interpretation. So because I only have my debit card… he takes our passes and tells us to meet him off of the train.

We arrive in Pisa (our connecting city) and meet him at the front of the train, then continue to walk to the ATM so he can get 50 Euros… the question in the back of my mind is why are we going to an ATM when the train station takes debit cards. So turns out the first ATM at the train station doesn’t work… we walk to the nearest bank in the city and now find an ATM. ***This whole time I have 100 Euros in my pocket, I was just hoping he actually would give up… nope*** He takes the money puts it in his wallet…. done. The day wasn’t looking too promising…. but after reading Chris Gillibeau’s new book “The Art of Non-Conformity” I inform Tera and myself, now that this has happened, what’s the worst part? We loose $50… big deal. Let’s continue on with the trip…. learn from our mistake and so see the freaking Leaning Tower!!!

We spent a total of one hour in Pisa…5 minutes of that actually included viewing the tower… haha We had a 20 min. walk to and from the train station. It was cool to see and even cooler to see 300 people taking photos of their spouse/friend trying to hold the tower up. Yes, of course we did it too. Peer Pressure.

Alright the day is going well now!!! We hop on the next train to Cinqua Terre and arrive right after noon… not the entire day we had planned for but it’s what we got. The train into the small villages teased us the whole way with glimpes of blue water and rocky hillsides. We arrive in Riomaggiore , the first of five towns and it’s just like the photos! Blue water and wooden boats held onto the shore by colored ropes. The buildings are colorful and tourists are everywhere… for a good reason.
We grab lunch and the best gellato ever and walk down lovers lane, Via Dell Amore, to the next town of Manarola.

The path to the third town, Corniglia, was a shocker for us. We’ll just say the views were better walking downhill. I also got to brag on Tera… she crossed an ENORMUS* SWINGING BRIDGE!!! (*maybe about 12 feet, but swinging bridges may be one of her least favorite things on earth)

We went ahead and hopped the train to visit Monterosso, and noticed it wasn’t anything but tourists and a beach. If you havn’t noticed, we like to stray away from the tourist scene… sometimes you got to, but all the other times, we want to feel like we’re only around locals. Which brings us to our swimming location. Remember this has been quite an eventful day thus far. We want to try to find a local beach that isn’t that crowded… so thanks to Rick Steves Guide, we head to Corniglia. We walk from the train station and can’t find a beach whatsoever….. the only path people are taking is to the town which is over 300 steps up… not quite the direction of the beaches. We see some guys walking from an unbeaten path and ask if there is a beach around; they inform us that we need to take the trail through this tunnel that has no light and it takes 20 minutes. They ask if we have a flashlight, and I remembered I had my iphone flash that can be used as a flash light (Yep… there’s an app for that). We say what the heck and try it out. Honestly, I really don’t think I could explain how dark this tunnel gets… it appears to be an old train tunnel, but with no tracks. It was black like a cave black. We loose sight of any light after entering and don’t see anything but what this little iphone light is showing. Black Black Black. I’m kinda nervous, but of course I can’t let Tera see that… I’m the man, ya know. Thank the Lord we see some light… ends up being another path walker with a flash light who informs us we have about 5 minutes to go. We see a light at the end of the tunnel and boom… we’ve entered what seems to be a small hippie land. Perfect.

We head down to the beach and see about 20 people, all nude. Man nude. Tera is one of maybe three women. Hmmmmmm Not going to lie, we knew they existed and why else would people decided to walk 20 minutes in black tunnel with no light. We walk down the ladder and grab a spot very close to the exit and maybe 100 ft away from any others, and decided to join the fun. The water was quite cold and the beach contained rocks rather than sand…not what we’re use too but the view (of the landscape) made up for it. The trek back to the train station was a breeze considered and then we hopped on for Siena…. due to arrive around midnight.

This is a photo of where the nude beach is, just on the other side of these leaves lie some very happy, and well/evenly tanned humans. This may be one of the best places on Earth.

Up next we have Siena, Italy (Tuscany)!

Wes

Huge thanks to Sarah and Vincent for driving us to the train station, that couple could write a book on hospitality. Next we hoped a train from Lyon, France to Florence, Italy via Switzerland and Milan. We were excited about the train ride because we new it was going through Switzerland, but we didn’t quite know what to expect. I only wish these photos were half as good as the view was from the train, and I’m sure the train view if half as good as actually standing there, and I’m sure ….. okay okay. I believe we just added a country to our list.

We got into Florence around 8pm and checked into the hostel… so far it was great. We immediately left in search for Gelato. Gelato is as easy to find in Italy as Bar-B-Que is in the south…. everywhere. That’s why you have to be careful and be very selective. First place was a FAIL. We walked around Florence with an cone in our hands and window shopped, (my favorite kind of shopping!). I know it was late, but Florence was very dirty – trash everywhere, so we didn’t get the best of impressions. *NOTE: On our honeymoon we came to Italy, but just went through Florence by train and didn’t stop. From what everyone had to say about it, we definitely made it a big stop.

The next day we were treated to a great free breakfast from the hostel and decided to go check out the city. Our hopes were up but continued to fail us during the day. Everything was dirty and it was so English. Let me explain, we absolutely love to travel to foreign places, and when we do we want to feel like we’re actually involved in the culture of the country. When everyone speaks English and half the people your around are English, it looses a lot of that culture feeling (unless you are in Great Britain, because well… they are the original English). We totally understand how places get that way… but we would much rather go to a little village in Tuscany where not a soul speaks English and all the signs are in the country’s language. It may be a little difficult, but it’s so worth it. So with that being said… Florence is major that way. Street vendors and tour groups everywhere. I think everyone should go and do the tourist stuff at least once, just make sure you get to see the real communities and people… that’s what you’ll fall in love with.

That afternoon it started raining pretty early so we called it a day and headed back to the hostel. Most all of our suitemates were there as well because of the rain… so the hostel became quite lively. It was great to be able to talk to some people from all over the world. We met a girl from Spain who had just moved to Florence to attend university, a Ukrainian gent just taking holiday (vacation), a 65 year old (looks 40) Australian woman who had just visited all three of her Compassion International adopted children, a cute Korean girl who couldn’t believe we were married, an awesome couple (friends) from Austin, TX who are enjoying some time before the “real world” life (both great photographers and so good to talk to), and last a Korean guy, who we still can’t pronounce his name. Pictured with Tera below. He has a great heart and we really befriended him while at the hostel, with just a few words spoken. He’s heading to the Korean Army in a couple of weeks so he wanted to take some time to travel. Just meeting these people really showed me how much people mean in our lives…. I always tell Tera, I’d rather take photos/video of real people any day compared to landscape or commercial. People have to much to learn from and I can say that I far enjoyed hanging out with these travelers rather than seeing David (David is obviously what we should have seen in Florence – but didn’t get a chance to). With that, I know that’s why God has placed this business in our hands… WE LOVE getting to know people’s stories and then being able to photograph that story. Man… beyond blessed.

Alright…. so we went to bed rather late just talking and got about 5 hours of sleep. Tomorrow is Cinqua Terre.

We give Florence’s Hostel and A++, Ostello Archi Rossi it had cheap meals, great free breakfast, and the dorms were clean. I would highly highly recommend it. Definitely set the bar for the rest.

As little girls some of us dream of marrying a French man, we watch the movies and we decide that they are the best of the best. At least, I remember at one point wanting to marry a tall, dark, handsome man with a French accent. Well, for Sarah, this is her reality. Vincent was given the choice of 3 schools to study abroad at in America, he chose Auburn because… well… he saw they have an 87,000 seat stadium. Haha. And there he met his mate.

After getting married they made the move over the big pond and are now residing in Lyon. We were so thankful to have the opportunity to shoot them while we were visiting. They are such a beautiful couple, I knew the photos would be outstanding…. of course, it also isn’t too bad to be in a Mid-evil city that dates back to the 1200′s ;)

Here are a few of their shots.

Here is a shot Wes got… it is so beautiful here. I love the small villages amongst the trees.

Sugar pie. Why don’t we have pie made of sugar in Alabama???

Lastly, the first step towards crossing something off of my “list”- One of the things I want to do before I die is to drink wine older than me, and appreciate it. We were able to get a bottle from 1948. Not only is it older than me, but it is older than my parents! Crazy! I haven’t opened it yet, we are bringing it back for a “perfect” occasion.

Alright. Now we are almost caught up! Just have to blog Florence, Italy. We are actually leaving here today and traveling to Cinque Terre and then to Siena. Cinque Terre is one of the places we were looking forward to most! I am so excited… and you will see why!

Be happy and love each other!
T